October 29, 2020 at 7:30 AM - Water Committee Meeting

Rationale:  Daniel Laska of Laskaland, LLC has requested the LPN Board to consider his variance as a normal variance within the Hydrologically Connected Area (HCA).  A map showing where 4.99 acres would stop is attached, along with a map showing the 12.38 acres, which Laskaland is wanting to irrigate in crop year 2021.  

Daniel Laska contacted the LPNNRD on October 8, 2020, with a variance submitted on October 15, 2020.  Staff informed him the deadline was September 15, 2020. 

The following rules are from the LPN Groundwater Rule and Regulations.  
Rule 4    Variance Request and Ranking Criteria for Limited Development of Additional Irrigated Acres
(1) Landowners and/or operators wanting to expand the number of irrigated acres in the hydrologically connected area must first submit to the District a LPNNRD variance request form for a new water well and/or a LPNNRD variance request form for the expansion of irrigated acres from an existing water source by September 15^th with those acres to be issued on January 1^st of the following year (unless determined otherwise by the District).

Rule 1    Hydrologically Connected Area for Limited Development
 
Under the authority of §46-715, and consistent with the District’s adopted Voluntary Integrated Management Plan and Lower Platte River Basin Water Management Plan (January 2018), the District shall limit development of irrigated groundwater acres with a goal of no more than 200 Acre Feet (AF) stream depletion per year in the Voluntary Integrated Management Plan groundwater control area. The Voluntary Integrated Management Plan (2018) is on file within the District ‘s office and can be found on its website.

The LPN Board approved 145.447 acre feet of depletion on October 12, 2020.  The Board has allowed expansion of acres less than 5 acres without a variance.  

The Committee felt approving this variance would open up variances on a monthly basis and then they would be handled on a first come, first serve basis.  The purpose of the deadline is to evaluate all normal variances on an equal basis.  
 

Rationale:  Randy Reznicek is asking the Board to consider his expansion application for 12 acres in S1-T17N-R6E. This application (LPN-V-018-0484) was originally approved in October of 2018 but the project was delayed due to the Highway 30 expansion. The application ranked 371.2 with an acre feet depletion of 2.3382.

The Committee felt as the Hwy 30 expansion was out of the producer control, that this variance should be honored.  This variance was accounted for in the 2018 variance Acre Feet allotment, so does not change the 2020 total.

Rationale:  Ralph and Dave Pieke submitted an expansion application on September 15th, 2020 but told staff that he did not want to pursue the project until 2021. He has since changed his mind and would like the Board to consider his application for 114 acres. The expansion is located in the NW 1/4 of S18-T21N-R4W. The application ranked 320.9 and has a new depletion of 17.878 Acre Foot (AF)

The Committee thought this was acceptable as it was before the September 15 deadline and does not put LPN over the 200 AF threshold.   The total 2020 AF allotment would then be 163.325 AF.

Rationale:  The Committee asked staff to develop a policy for adding less than 5 acres, which LPN Board has allowed in the past.  

Rationale: 

2020 is the eighteenth year for this Phase 2 Area. 

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 10 to 14.99 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen greater than 15 ppm
2004	0 to 25 ppm	46.3% (44 of 95)	8.4% (8 of 95)	45.3% (43 of 95)
2005	0 to 25 ppm	47% (44 of 94)	15% (14 of 94)	38% (36 of 94)
2006	0 to 24 ppm	41% (29 of 71)	14% (10 of 71)	45% (32 of 71)
2007	0 to 31 ppm	48% (48 of 100)	9% (9 of 100)	43% (43 of 100)
2008	0 to 28 ppm	53.75% (43 of 80)	7.5% (6 of 80)	38.75% (31 of 80)
2009	0 to 22 ppm	45.5% (41 of 90)	15.5% (14 of 90)	39% (35 of 90)
2010	0 to 35.7 ppm	48.65% (54 of 111)	11.71% (13 of 111)	39.64% (44 of 111)
2011	0 to 26.6 ppm	51% (56 of 110)	6% (7 of 110)	43% (47 of 110)
2012	0 to 28.9 ppm	57% (61 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	34% (36 of 107)
2013	0 to 25.8 ppm	50% (53 of 107)	9% (10 of 107)	41% (44 of 107)
2014	0 to 22.3 ppm	51% (55 of 108)	13% (14 of 108)	36% (39 of 108)
2015	0 to 32.3 ppm	43% (31 of 72)	8% (6 of 72)	49% (35 of 72)
2016	0 to 35.1 ppm	34% (25 of 74)	11% (8 of 74)	55% (41 of 74)
2017	0 to 23.5 ppm	36% (27 of 74)	15% (11 of 74)	49% (36 of 74)
2018	0 to 30.9 ppm	40% (25 of 63)	11% (7 of 63)	49% (31 of 63)
2019	0 to 24.5 ppm	46% (22 of 48)	10% (5 of 48)	44% (21 of 48)
2020	0.08 to 20.5	33.93% (19 of 56)	10.71% (6 of 56)	35.72% (20 of 56)	19.64% (11 of 56)

Rationale: 

2020 is the fifth year of this Phase 3 Area.  This Phase 3 area went into effect September 1, 2015.  The 55 sections of this area first went into a Phase 2 Area in 2004.  The ten sections that were in Phase 2 are now in Phase 3.  As such, the 2020 numbers (at bottom of table) are for 65 sections.

Committee asked staff to look at prior years for over 15 PPM

Year	Nitrate-nitrogen Range	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 0 to 8.0 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 8.01 to 10.00 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen 10 to 14.99 ppm	Percent Nitrate-nitrogen Greater than 15 ppm
2004	0 to 47 ppm	30% (42 of 139)	10% (14 of 139)	60% (83 of 139)
2005	0 to 120 ppm	31.3% (74 of 236)	10.2% (24 of 236)	58.5% (138 of 236)
2006	0 to 53 ppm	28% (50 of 181)	14% (26 of 181)	58% (105 of 181)
2007	0 to 99 ppm	32% (75 of 231)	10% (22 of 231)	58% (134 of 227)
2008	0 to 46 ppm	28% (53 of 190)	12% (23 of 190)	60% (114 of 190)
2009	0 to 57 ppm	33% (72 of 216)	6% (13 of 216)	61% (131 of 216)
2010	0 to 57.5 ppm	31% (70 of 229)	7% (15 of 229)	62% (142 of 229)
2011	0 to 65.8 ppm	28% (67 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	63% (153 of 241)
2012	0 to 52.6 ppm	29% (70 of 241)	9% (21 of 241)	62% (150 of 241)
2013	0 to 94.0 ppm	25% (63 of 252)	9% (23 of 252)	66% (166 of 252)
2014	0 to 101.0 ppm	27% (68 of 251)	9% (22 of 251)	64% (161 of 251)
2015	0 to 53.3 ppm	23% (55 of 238)	12% (29 of 238)	65% (154 of 238)
2016	0 to 50.5 ppm	25% (58 of 228)	10% (22 of 228)	65% (148 of 228)
2017	0 to 53.4 ppm	25% (60 of 238)	6% (14 of 238)	69% (164 of 238)
2018	0 to 56.9 ppm	26.5% (50 of 189)	6.3% (12 of 189)	67.2% (127 of 189)
2019	0 to 39.4 ppm	25% (53 of 209)	11% (22 of 209)	64% (134 of 209)
2020	0 to 50.8 ppm	25.22 % (59 of 234)	5.98% (14 of 234)	27.35% (64 of 234)	41.45% (97 of 234)

 

Rationale:  The technical group met on October 30th to make recommendations to the managers.  The management meeting is scheduled for November 17.  This management group then makes recommendations to the Coalition Representatives.   The technical group agreed to recommend to the management group that the Lower Platte Basin will utilize analytical methods (similar to what was done in the initial study) and the CENEB model for the Upper Part of  Basin.  After the data is collected and analyzed, the group will decide the percentage, which probably will be around 5-10% for the next 5 years.

The main agenda item that will be discussed at the technical meeting is how the next increments of water allotments will be divided or not divided.  A map is attached showing the Lower Platte River Basins including the 7 NRDs involved.  

Options sent out by Tylr Napstek - LLNRD and chairman of the technical committee.

What this group needs to develop is a recommendation for which model or models should be used. Some options and items:

• A full comprehensive update cannot be done using latest models until the new models in Lower Platte are Completed (well after 1^st increment expires).
  • Potential for re-analyzing lower basin with updated models as they become available.
• Option to utilize CENEB for upper portions Loup & Elkhorn and use previous utilized analytical methods for lower portion of the basin.
• Another option would be to utilize same methodology and analytical tools used in the 1^st increment throughout the entire basin

Other options that has been discussed at the LPN Water Committee:

• To work with the allotment that was issued in 2016 for another 5 years and borrow ahead if needed.  After this years' variances the LPN has 1247.55 Acre Feet still available.  
• To except 1/2 of the original allotment, which would be  1, 138 Acre Feet of Water.  The first allotment was only 10% of the useable water, so this would be an additional 5%. 

Staff concern is that NeDNR says that Lower Platte - Missouri Trib. model will be done around 2023.  Will that happen?  If it is completed, will the NRDs accept it?  There is a couple studies currently being conducted in LE and SQS #2 area to analysis the model utilizing AEM flights.  Papio and LPN  potentially could be getting a joint WSF grant to do its on geological framework project.   

The Committee and staff felt that as the Lower Platte-Missouri Trib. model is not complete, that the District should stay with the original 2016 HCA area.  They felt that as the original allotment was 10%, to ask for 5% for the next 5 year increment (2022-2027).  The District will be carrying over 1229.672 AF minus next year's AF allotment.  This would leave the District with a little over 2000 AF for the next 5-year allotment.  

Rationale:  Calls have been received from producers complimenting the LPNNRD on expanding the meter maintenance district wide.  

Rationale: 

Attached is the annual state report to DEE
 

Rationale:  Attached are a couple of graphs from GWEL wells within SQS #1 and David City Area.  These are the fall levels and recharge will occur over the winter for spring levels.  Staff would like to start the discussion with Committee on drought scenarios.  Lower Elkhorn NRD has implemented some restrictions for certain areas as the D3 trigger was hit within the NRDs drought plan.  Is the LPN ready to handle a mutli-year drought?  What information do you want staff to provide?  Allocations might not work for a confining aquifer?  Water flow meters take time to install and accurate water usage can be beneficial in calculating volume of water available.     

The latter half of the 2020 growing season was significantly dry and staff has been brainstorming of ways we can deal with excessive pumping to preserve our water for ALL of the irrigated land throughout the LPNNRD. These numbers are up for discussion and nothing is set in place. This is something that we may want to consider and starting thinking about if these drought scenarios occur more frequently into the future. These are only suggestions. The suggested numbers are acre inch capped limits.

Drought Conditions: For crops--Water needed
D0 (abnormally dry) = 4-8"
D1 (moderate drought) = 8-10"
D2 (severe drought) = 10-12"
D3 (extreme drought) = 12-15"
D4 (exceptional drought) = 15-18"

Drought Conditions: To protect the water supply (2 or more consecutive years with drought conditions)
D0 (abnormally dry) = 4" 
D1 (moderate drought) = 6"
D2 (severe drought) = ? 8"
D3 (extreme drought) = ? 8", 10", 12"
D4 (exceptional drought) = ? 8", 10", 12", 14"


Drought Conditions: To protect the water supply and for crop production (combined)
D0 (abnormally dry) = 4" or 6"
D1 (moderate drought) = 6" or 8"
D2 (severe drought) = 8" or 10"
D3 (extreme drought) = 10" or 12"
D4 (exceptional drought) = 12" or 14" 

Copy of current drought map is attached.

If a multi-year drought would happen, by LPN GW Rules and Regulations it could take 3 years before Water Quantity Rules would be implemented. 
The Committee asked staff to put together a plan to install water flow meters district wide at the November Water Committee with a potential vote at the December Board Meeting. 

Rationale: 

The LPNNRD has received # 1 livestock permit applications from DEQ since the last Water Committee meeting.
The Board did past a motion to stay neutral on livestock facilities and the NRD responsibility is with the permitting of high capacity wells.  Manure application is usually treated as any commercial fertilizer, which soil sampling and manure analysis should be conducted and handled by NDEE.  

Name	Livestock	Type of Permit	Legal Description	County
Korte Farms	Swine	Expansion	NW SW 34-19N-01E	Platte County

 

 

 Description of permit application
Plan to increase from 9000 head to 14,000 for swine <55 lbs and from 4500 head to 7000 for swine >55 lbs.

Rationale: 

# new wells has been reviewed and approved for decommissioning since the last Committee meeting.

 

Rationale: 

# wells have been plugged, reviewed, and ready for cost share payment approval this month.

Well Owner	Type of Well	Cost Share Estimate	County

 

Rationale:  Attached is an invoice for $17,547.25 per contract from LRE.

Activities in last month from LRE included: 

• Completion of the vulnerability assessment and other relevant hydrogeologic surfaces that will be used in the desktop tool as inputs
• Initial calibration of the SWB model
• Corresponding with LPN NRD staff on land cover, parcel data, etc. for GIS purposes
• Discussion with LPN NRD and the LRE team, and LRE internal meetings on input layers
• Refinement of desktop tool workflow

.  

Rationale:  Attached is the scoring sheet showing the approval of the WSF grant for the geological interpretation grant.  A agreement between Papio and LPN will be developed for Board approval.